We have made a significant change to the way Addresses are entered and stored within Online. The entry of an address has been separated into individual input for street, post code, state and country. Apart from the benefit of validating this data, this enhancement is important step for the system so that we can record this data individually and re-use it in the application for such things as reporting. Now we have the ability to use Country, State and Post Code as reporting filters, or columns in a report. This means that data can be used in sub-totals, report sequencing and as selection criteria.
As part of this change, users can control the list of countries they have in the system, determine which ones are “active” for the users to select from, and also which ones need validation. Below is a sample of the function for creating and editing Countries:
As you can see, “local” terminology can be employed to describe States differently (Region, Province etc.) A similar feature for Post Codes has been implemented to allow the user of expressions like “Zip Code”. The ability to decide if Post Codes will be validated on entry is also supported. Additionally we have implemented prompts to allow a “lookup” to be performed via an external web site so users can have a quick and proven way to find the post code they are after if it is not already set up in Online.
If required, a list of “States” can also be input per Country so that this can be selected and validated by the user during address input rather than having individual users type it, and potentially misspell it. See sample of “State” for Australia.
When Post code validation is required for a given country, the function below can be used to add or change the details recorded against a given Post Code:
If should be noted that we can provide a “standard” list of Countries, along with a full list of Australian Post Codes for use/validation for users if requested. Other lists of Post Codes for countries can be uploaded on request as well if required to save users attempting to enter the full list themselves.
Throughout the system, all the functions that have an “Address” input have been changed to use this new method of address input. Depending on the country selected, the input will vary, as sometimes state and postcode are mandatory and validated, and other times they will be optional inputs. Here’s some examples of the new input:
Customer Address
Purchase Order Address
Below is a list of the functions that were changed to incorporate this new address input:
- Stock Location details
- Warehouse details
- Suppliers
- Customers
- Bad Debts
- Assets Locations
- Royalty Recipients
- Purchase Order entry/adjustment
- Sales Order entry/adjustment
- Transfer Order entry/adjustment
- Quote entry/adjustment
- Job Cost entry/adjustment
- Manual Payment entry
- Cheque Refund entry